What Is Hedera?

About Hedera (HBAR)

Hedera is a decentralized public ledger that operates on a PoS system. Its governance is entrusted to a decentralized council consisting of prominent technology companies, universities, and Web3 projects, including Google, LG, Chainlink Labs, etc. The developers have plans to eventually transition the protocol to a permissionless model, eliminating the need for the council's participation.

The network utilizes an innovative consensus mechanism called hashgraph. It is centered around the concept of a DAG (direct acyclic graph), meaning that it creates graphs – data structures that never revisit previous states. Thus the hashgraph ensures the immutability of transactions once they are recorded.

This mechanism incorporates two crucial steps:

1. Gossip. Each computer shares information about the transactions it knows about with randomly selected other computers, creating a graph-like structure.
2. Virtual voting. Each computer collects all the transaction and gossip information it has received and determines the order of transactions. It then shares its vote with other computers.

The consensus algorithm employed by Hedera ensures unanimous agreement among all network computers regarding transaction order and prevents any attempts to manipulate the system. Moreover, it enables high scalability of over ten thousand TPS and achieves low-latency finality within seconds.

HBAR is the network’s native token with a fixed supply of 50 bln tokens. It is necessary for paying transaction fees and in-app payments. Additionally, HBAR ensures network security, as Hedera functions on a PoS protocol.

Furthermore, it is claimed on the official website of the project that Hedera's work is more environmentally friendly in terms of energy consumption compared to many other protocols:

Where did Hedera (HBAR) come from?

The creation of Hashgraph technology can be attributed to computer scientist Leemon Baird, who developed it in 2015. Notably, Baird had a prior professional background at the US Air Force Academy. Subsequently, in 2017, the establishment of Hedera took place, and the network was publicly launched in March 2018.

Hedera Hashgraph has raised a total of $125.5M in funding over 4 rounds with the latest one being in February 2021. Such companies as Boeing HorizonX Ventures, BlockTower Capital, and some others participated.

As for Hedera’s roadmap, in 2023, the team plans to increase decentralization by enabling permissioned community-run nodes. Also, the developers are working on adding an airdrop feature for the developers and extending the capability of scheduled transactions.

What are the advantages of Hedera (HBAR)?

1. Cheap and predictable fees. The average cost is about $0.001.
2. Immediate settlement. It takes 3-5 seconds.
3. Scalability. The throughput is 10,000 TPS and more.

What are the disadvantages of Hedera (HBAR)?

1. Semi-decentralized governance. The current state of decentralization within the model, which incorporates a governing council, is not flawless. However, Hedera is actively engaged in efforts to enhance decentralization.

How to buy Hedera (HBAR) on SimpleSwap?

In case you are interested in purchasing HBAR, SimpleSwap is the best choice. Here we are enlisting all the necessary steps:

1. Select the cryptocurrency you would like to exchange (for example, BTC). Enter the amount you want to swap.
2. Choose HBAR in the second drop-down list (the crypto you would like to receive). You will see the estimated amount that you will get after the exchange.
3. Click the Exchange button.
4. Enter the Recipient's Address. HBAR will be sent there. Double-check the address, please, to make sure that you are using the correct one.
5. Create the exchange.
6. You will see the Bitcoin deposit address. You need to transfer the necessary amount of BTC to this address to start the exchange. After that, wait for crypto to reach your wallet.

SimpleSwap reminds you that this article is provided for informational purposes only and does not provide investment advice. All purchases and cryptocurrency investments are your own responsibility.